Certain treatments require temporary or permanent interruption or modification of select nerve functions. One example treatment is renal nerve ablation, which is sometimes used to treat conditions related to hypertension and congestive heart failure. The kidneys produce a sympathetic response to congestive heart failure, which among other effects, increases the undesired retention of water and/or sodium. Ablating some nerves running to the kidneys may reduce or eliminate this sympathetic function, providing a corresponding reduction in the associated undesired symptoms.
Many nerves, including renal nerves, run along the walls of or in close proximity to blood vessels, and these nerves can be accessed via the blood vessel walls. In some instances, it may be desirable to ablate perivascular renal nerves using a radio frequency (RF) electrode. Such treatment, however, may have an increased risk of thermal injury to the vessel at the electrode and other undesirable side effects such as, but not limited to, tissue damage, clotting, and/or protein fouling of the electrode. To prevent such undesirable side effects, some techniques attempt to increase the distance between the vessel walls and the electrode.
Therefore, there remains room for improvement and/or alternatives in providing systems and methods for intravascular nerve modulation.